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Hey folks cooling back again got another one of your emails about high tech cars and modern driving.
Let's see this one comes in from Brent see who has a question and wants advice on what kind of car to buy to do rideshare work.
I've had the same car for rideshare for five years, a 2014 and a half Camry Hybrid.
taking good care of it, but strangers being strangers.
Just last night I had a passenger light a cigarette in my car without asking.
He extinguished it on my door panel for asking him to leave my non smoking car savages out there.
For this reason I've always felt like buying a new car for rideshare is best I've thought about getting a lightly used car, but I'm worried about what the biohazards could be.
Those smells linger and passengers will rate you lower.
Yikes.
Well, after that story, and many more that I know you Rideshare drivers could tell us, my instinct goes the other way.
If I was driving rideshare, I wanna the cleanest [UNKNOWN] I can get away with and not run a foul or whatever Uber rules there are for the class of driving I'm doing.
But in this case, I'm gonna go back to my oldest [UNKNOWN] Everyone is tired of me saying this Don't buy new, buy a used car clean, late model used is always the way to go.
And I think it's the way to go for a ride share operation unless I'm missing something And believe me, you guys know your business way better than I do.
But just speaking from a car product point of view, I really love that late model used idea because it'll be indistinguishable To the passenger getting in and out, maybe if you're driving Black, you wanna be on the latest cutting edge, but even then, really it's about a clean comfortable ride, courteous driver, that's the essence of a good ride, right?
So I don't know if I'd sweat the new cars so much In terms of all the biohazards and stinks inside of cars, there are some amazing products and detailing services, that, I gotta tell you can get just about anything out of a car.
Luckily most of the cars nowadays are synthetic, even the leather's got a synthetic coating on it, so you're kind of impervious to stains and smells if you work at cleaning it.
Now, the real key, I think, for a rideshare vehicle is low total cost of ownership and high reliability.That's where you want the most common cars in the world.Your Camry's a great example.
If you have a hybrid, that's a little more rare, but it does give you some great economics.But I'm going to go after something like a CR-V, a Ford Explorer, an Accord, your Camry.
I'm going right down the middle of the cars that are most common.
Because you're going to find that they are totally bulletproof.
It had so many copies on the road for so many years and so much feedback that's the sweet spot.
Plus you're going to find much lower parts and service costs because there are so many vendors of each competing for your business because the market out there, the addressable market, is huge.
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Here's another great test to figure out what the most common mainstream cars are that are gonna have low cost of parts, service and durability.
Work at junkyard if you got one near you.
Junkyard operators don't **** around.
They only put cars on the yard that they know have an enormous popularity, lots of turnover.
They are the cars that are supported well by the infrastructure of American car service and repair.
Look at this part.
here's a here's a Ford dash Trim, this thing's $334 from the dealer, but because these cars are so common and so well supported in the aftermarket and the US market, this was $5 and 69 cents.
That's the kind of cost of ownership you want.
If you've got a part of your car that gets all synced up with some gross passenger, you want to be able to get a cheap aftermarket or really cheap, clean used part.
Swap that thing out.
If you were to synthesize the many lists of best ride share cars out there, you might end up with something like this.
The Prius is certainly a go to choice, great economy, tough as nails, and that tight turning radius that can transform daily downtown driving.
Camry, Accord, Sonata, and Fusion, Hybrid versions when can.
Do tend to blend in to one, but to get you into the sweet spot with the [UNKNOWN] more room and appearance of quality than in a Prias.
The KIA Soul is a great choice from a manageable utility.
And that Hyundai KIA ten one hundred power train warranty is very attractive.
Now, though you may be an odd with their exception forms of commercially use.
Lexus ES has long been an easy way to get into the upper tiers like Uber select at a good cost on the used market.
And swallow your pride and consider a grand caravan,.
It's a real affordable, reliable way to qualify for some of the higher earning big car rides.
And now that a larger vehicle can always handle a small run, but the reverse is not true
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And the last thing I would consider, it occurs to me anyway, is kind of the Uber select filter.
This seems to be a real sweet spot to aim your car app to make sure you can get a little bit of that better select money without having to spend the crazy money of getting a car that qualifies for black unless you're already driving an SUV In a nutshell, Uber Select cars have to be '09s or newer.
They can have no interior tears nor, interestingly, can they have cloth upholstery.
They have to seat at least four passengers plus the driver, have working windows and air conditioning.
Can't be a full size van or truck, nothing elegant about that.
No taxi cabs, old government cars or recycled police cars.
And they can have a salvage or rebuilt title.
Now, that's a pretty good filter to be honest for buying any used car, I'll leave out the truck part, nothing wrong with that for general use.
But those are some nice parameters about finding a car that is clean, late model Legit doesn't have any [UNKNOWN] history.
Now gonna explore on ride show economics [UNKNOWN] run your business as a ride show contractor.
But I will tell you what, in almost every scenario a clean late model used car is gonna be a hero, for total cost of ownership, minimum depreciation, and making sure you buy a really popular one.
So it's drop dead easy, To get parts and service.
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Keep those emails coming.
I'm here to answer your questions about high tech cars and modern driving.
It's cooley@theroadshow.com
